Dark
City (1998)
Filmed with the same cinematic vision that Director/Producer
Alex Proyas used for "The Crow," "Dark City" has little
else going for it. The plot is dumb, the acting is average
and the ending is pointless making the entire exercise
a rather moot point.
If this were Proyas' first film, it might be more
easy to consider it a masterpiece. The film is exceptionally
cool to look at. Proyas not only has the most dark and
atmospheric sets and matte shots, but his special effects
often make these aspects of the film stunning. Utilizing
both physical and computer generated effects, the "Dark
City" Proyas constructs often changes it's shape resulting
in spectacular visuals. This is the most interesting
part of the film. Proyas also brings us a world, much
like the one in "The Crow" that is sleek, black, wet
and shimmering. It's usually neat to look at.
But what isn't so appealing are the people in the
film. Rufus Sewell is pretty lackluster. He looks like
Leo Sayer lost in the headlights of oncoming traffic.
He cannot, for the life of him, make us care about anything
that happens in this film. And as the central character,
it is important that he be able to draw us into the
plot. He is forced to interact with Keifer Sutherland,
who plays his nervous intellectual here. Sutherland
is interesting but his character is so unappealing,
we don't care about him either. Then there's William
Hurt as a police inspector. Yawn. Hurt, who can emote
when he tries, chooses not to attempt anything here.
He seems stymied by the film's plot - and then the film's
plot chooses to simply stifle him. Meanwhile, Jennifer
Connelly has no luck playing a confused ingenue here
who is also a torch singer. It's hard to blame her though,
as no one could be expected to make sparks fly with
the rather damp Sewell.
The only people interesting on screen are a couple
of the actors who play what are called "The Strangers."
The most fun of these is Richard O'Brien, the creator
of the "Rocky Horror Picture Show," who also played
Riff Raff in the film. Why is he interesting? Well,
he looks cool and you get to sit there for the whole
movie asking yourself, "Is that Richard O'Brien," since
they don't put any credits but the title at the beginning
of the film. Also, Proyas has a couple of children playing
these odd looking characters and they look pretty cool.
Too bad Proyas doesn't explore this utilization of children
more in the film.
"Dark City" took forever to be released in the U.S.
I'm not sure if this was because Proyas took forever
getting it ready or because the distributor (New Line)
didn't know what to do with it. Regardless, it wasn't
really worth the wait. But Proyas will be back with
something awesome, I'm sure. His cinematic vision will
always be intriguing to watch.
Note:
Also with Ian Richardson.
Screenplay by Proyas, Lem Dobbs (who co-scripted the
similarly styled "Kafka"), and David S. Goyer (who worked
on the script for "The Crow 2") from a story by Proyas.
Music by Trevor Jones.
Filmed in L.A. and in Proyas' native Sydney Australia.
At times the film was to be called either "Dark Empire,"
or "Dark World." This is at least the 3rd film to be
called "Dark City."
Review written in 1998
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